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Benefits of Induction Cooking

Aug 18, 2015

If you thought gas and electric were the only ways to cook, think again. Induction cooktops are masters of the quick change—delicate enough to melt butter and chocolate, but powerful enough to bring six cups of water to a boil in just three minutes.

Induction cooktops don’t use heating elements or burners underneath the pan. Instead, they employ a series of magnets that excite the iron atoms in a pan to generate heat. As you can probably imagine, it's far more efficient to heat cookware directly than indirectly. Induction is able to deliver roughly 80 to 90 percent of its electromagnetic energy to the food in the pan. Compare that to gas, which converts a mere 38 percent of its energy, and electric, which can only manage roughly 70 percent.

Induction cooktops can achieve a wide range of temperatures, and take far less time to boil than their electric or gas counterparts. Additionally, the cooktop surface itself stays cool. You don't have to worry about burning your hand on a burner that's cooling down, and it's even possible to put a paper towel between a hot frying pan and an induction burner to keep oil from spattering on a cooktop.

You also won't have to spend much time cleaning. Since the cooktop itself doesn't get hot, it's very easy to clean. "You don’t get a lot of baked-on food when you’re cooking,” said Paul Bristow, product manager for cooktops at GE Appliances.

Cookware is one major reason Americans have been slow to adopt induction. Because induction relies on electromagnetism, only pots with magnetic bottoms like steel and iron can transfer the heat. However, that doesn’t mean you need to buy all-new cookware. If a magnet sticks to the bottom of the pots and pans you already have, they’ll work with induction.